Hellooooooo. Hello. 

Oh my goodness! Family you are the best. Never forget it. How's everything going? Mom? Dad? Sam? Kate? I hope you're all happy and doing well. I love you so much. 

So I've been all over the place this week. Literally. We taught our investigator Kel tuesday afternoon and it went really well. He pointed to his heart and said I feel it here....I feel that this is true. I LOVE when things like that happen. He wants to be baptized, we just need to help him overcome his addictions and he'll be good! Wednesday was the looooonnnngggessstttt day of my life. We just rode around on our bikes and no one was home and I was just getting frustrated. It was super hot and then I was getting mad at myself for having a bad attitude. Things got better though we had a really good lesson with a less-active lady and I realized that I just need to be patient with this area and with myself. There are some incredible people here and I know me and Sister La Crue can do a lot of great things here if we just trust in the Lord. Thursday we traveled up to Calgary and its around a 2 hour drive. And let me tell you....I was SO happy to be back in Calgary hahaha. I was just driving around with a huge smile on my face. We stopped at the mission home and had some dinner. It was so great to see President and Sister Nicholas again. We then went and stayed with some of the sisters at their place of the night and it was just really fun to be able to relax and not stress about the previous week. The next morning we had a very yummy breakfast at the mission home with all the zone leaders and the sister training leaders and then went over to the church and had our little meeting. I loved knowing what was going on in the mission in more detail and being able to help make goals for the mission. Overall it was a really good meeting. Then we jumped back in our car and headed back down to Lethbridge we ate really quickly and then we had to go on exchanges with the sisters in Stirling so we drove to Stirling and I stayed there for the night. Stirling is a tiny tiny town. Super cute. I loved being able to work with the other sisters and I'm just super impressed by how hard they're working and how well they're doing for not being out very long. Over 50% of the mission has been out for less than 6 months so our mission is young but they're doing great! I love it. Then I drove back to Lethbridge just in time for Stake Conference. The adult session was great. And we had the chance to introduce Kel to President and Sister Nicholas which was fun. President Nicholas spoke at stake conference about doing missionary work and it was super good. Hopefully people learned something from it. The sunday session of stake conference was really good as well. And then after that I just wanted to crash....haha and I kind of did.....since my throat started freaking out and hurting and then I felt sick for the rest of the day. no fun. I'm doing better now so don't worry.

Anyways this week was great. Hopefully we can get some things going on in this area. I love you all! 

Have a great week!

Love 

Sister M.

Sarah and the really old sign in the cute town of Stirling. 

Sister La Crue and Sister Martin.

Hello from Lethbridge!

So I'm in my new area! I'm in Lethbridge and I'm serving in the Chinook area and let me tell you the last few days have been quite the adventure. So when we arrived to the transfer station on Wednesday morning it was definitely hard saying goodbye to Sister Blommaert. She's such an amazing missionary and I'm going to miss serving with her but I"m sure she'll do great things in Chestermere. It was super sad to say goodbye to Chestermere, we had a lot of good things going on when I left. I also thought there were only one set of Sister Training Leaders in the South but they put 2 sets because there were so many sisters to be over. We all got in the transfer van and headed south. It took about 2 hours to get to Lethbridge. My new companion is Sister LaCrue she's 32 and she goes home in 6 weeks. I should be able to learn a lot from her. The area we're in was just opened a few months ago so we have a lot to learn. The first day we were going to different members homes so I could meet them and I ended up tripping on the curb and I sprained my ankle....bad. It immediately started swelling like a giant hippopotamus and we went home for the rest of the night. I couldn't walk on it or anything. I was so angry with myself for being so clumsy! Ha oh well.

We currently have only 1 investigator in this area so I'm hoping we can start working really hard to find more. Honestly the past few days have been hard. So hard. Sister LaCrue is awesome and has so much patience with me. I just feel like I'm brand new in the mission field. I don't know anyone, there's nothing really going on in the area and I'm limping around on a stupid ankle with some pretty sweet bruises that were black and blue. Hahaha my life.

Anyways I've learned a lot in the last couple of days as well. I'm being humbled a lot. A LOT. I'm relying on Heavenly Father more and He's teaching me patience. 

This is how I look at it.....the first 3 months of my mission were rough.......and then after that it got really good and I started seeing lots of miracles and blessings and then I started becoming a little too confident and then Heavenly Father put me here and now I'm being humbled. And I'm grateful for it, even though its hard. I'm excited to see what me and Sister LaCrue can do in this area.

So as a sister training leader me and Sister Lacrue are over 16 sisters, covering the areas in Lethbridge, Stirling and Medicine Hat. We'll be going on lots of exchanges with them which will be fun because I get to see a lot more areas. We also get to go back up to Calgary this weekended for the mission leadership council. I'm sooooo excited to see Calgary again hahaha I miss it a lot. I can definitely tell I'm not in the big city anymore but it will be fun to explore Lethbridge and the other areas as well. 

Other than that I'm alive and doing well :) I love you all and hope you're all doing good as well. Give the new puppy a big hug for me! I'm jealous! 

Love 

Sister M. 

Sarah's last P-Day in the East Zone. 

Bye Bye Chestermere! 

Sister Maund and Sister Martin 

Sister Bullock (who Sister Blommaert is training), Sister Blommaert, and Sister Martin! 

 Right before Sarah had to leave. Bye Bye Sister B.

Sister Strathern and Sister Martin! 

The famous bridge in Lethbridge.

Hello family!

Oh my goodness can I just express to you all of how much I just adore you guys. I have the best family in the world and I hope everything is going well for you. This week was so crazy. so fun. so hard. so spiritual.

Monday we had a lesson with these two girls ages 14 and 16 their mom is in another ward in the stake but really wanted sister missionaries to come and teach her daughters who are kind of struggling right now. Me and Sister B. decided we would just teach them like any other investigators and so we started with the restoration. It was honestly the most powerful restoration lesson I've ever taught in the last 6 months of my mission. It really strengthened my testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. I can't express enough how much I love the Book of Mormon.....its so true! On Tuesday we had another great lesson with our investigator Veronica and she's really excited to find out for herself that the Book of Mormon is true. I really hope and pray that she will recognize the Holy Ghost testifying to her that it is true. We then had another lesson with one of our investigators who dropped us.......she doesn't want to meet with us anymore and it was so sad. She is such an amazing lady with such a great family and its sad to see that she is separating herself from the gospel. Its always a little depressing when an investigator drops you....... the rest of the day didn't really get any better....ha I just love those days....not! Anyways on Wednesday things got a little better we had some really great lessons and did some service for some members in the ward. We had dinner with Andy and Kenora and it was so yummy! I love hearing them talk about the gospel, they have such strong testimonies. They told us how they're working on reading every general conference talk that's ever been given by a prophet....I told them not to overwhelm themselves but they said they love reading the talks because it brings them together and that they want to know what they need to work on. They're incredible. Also Sister Blommaert got a training call!! She was so excited to get that call but also nervous....she'll do great....obviously I trained her....haha just kidding but really she'll do great. I also was super excited because I didn't get a training call so I was thinking I got off the hook and was going to be free this next transfer from corrupting new missionaries.......haha

On Thursday we had the incredible opportunity to go to the temple! I love love love love the temple. I can't say that enough. We got to go with the other sisters, Sister Gonzalez and Sister Olpin who I just adore and Sister Maund took us who is also another lady I just adore. We all went to lunch after and it was just such a great day. After we went and did service for Bridget and continued to help her paint her fence. She's such a great lady and she told us this week that she wants to come to church with us because she really respects what we're doing and wants to learn more. Yay!! 

On Friday we had a super good day we picked up 2 new investigators and went to a meeting for all the new trainers. We only have 7 sisters coming out this transfer...not a lot but I think it made Sister B. happy to know she was called to train. Friday was super hard for me for some reason....I was just feeling super inadequate to be out here and was just feeling super down. Luckily we had some lessons with some really incredible people so that made me happy.

Saturday was good nothing too exciting we had the adult session of stake conference that night and it was really good. The temple president and his wife spoke. The Sunday session of stake conference was really good as well  and it was great seeing people from the old part of the ward. I've really grown to love the people here in the area of Chestermere.

Yesterday(Monday) I got pretty emotional thinking about leaving this area. I can't believe I've been here for 6 months! Crazy. Last night everyone started getting their leadership calls and the Elders kept asking me if I got a call to be a Sister Training Leader.....I just laughed and said that would never happen. 5 seconds later President Nicholas called and told me I've been called to be a Sister Training Leader....what!??? I thought I got off the hook from training and now I get to be over a bunch of sisters. Oh my goodness. It will be fun though, I'll be able to meet a lot more missionaries in the field. I also got an email this morning saying that I'm going down south! I won't be in Calgary anymore. Its going to be something new and totally different but exciting! I'll let you know next week where I'm being transferred to for sure. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

 

Sister M.

Sister Olpin and Sister Martin 

Sister Martin, Sister Blommaert, Sister Gonzalez and Sister Olpin at the temple :) 

Sister B. and Sister M. 

Sarah's incredible district this past transfer. 

Sarah and Bridget. 

fireworks & worms & being a missionary.

What a fun week!! I feel like everyday there is something to laugh or cry about...it's better to just laugh it makes life better. We've had a lot of great lessons this past week with investigators, less-active members and part member families. Its been a little rough since they split our ward but its ok. We went around one last time to a bunch of the people we were teaching in Calgary and I was surprised by how emotional I got saying goodbye to people who aren't in the Chestermere ward anymore. I guess I need to get used to saying goodbyes but I've just grown to love these people so much. I'm so grateful for the friendships I'm developing out here. We went and helped this lady paint her fence and it was so fun! The other sisters in our zone came and helped us and as I was painting I found this HUGE worm. HUGE. We told one of the sisters that she should eat it.......so she did. It was hilarious. I got it on film so remind me to show you in a year. I think some people think missionaries are these crazy robots but trust me....we're just as strange as ever. The lady we painted the fence for isn't a member and just thinks its the greatest thing ever that we want to do service for her. I'm reminded of Ammon and how he first served King Lamoni and then was able to teach him later. I feel like that's what is going to happen with this lady. We just need to serve her and love her and then we can hopefully teach her. We then later taught our investigator who is on date to be baptized and the lesson was amazing. We need to take things slow with him but its going really well. Also the Elders will have to finish teaching him since he's not in our ward anymore.....sad. The next day we had a couple of different lessons and we were teaching one investigator and when we told her that our families could be together forever she said that she didn't care to be with her family forever.....WHAT?!?!?? Who says that? I'm so glad I know that families can be together forever and that I want to be with you guys forever, sorry you can't get rid of me :) So this past week Calgary has this event called Global Fest and its so cool! They do these huge firework shows every other night featuring different countries like China, France, England and a couple of others. They do the fireworks in a park right outside our apartment building so we can see them from our apartment. The problem is we never got a parking permit to park in our parking lot  during the firework shows and the police didn't believe we lived there so we spent the night with the other sisters in our zone. Crazy. Luckily we got a permit from the city today so we can now go back to our apartment. It was a little tender mercy though being able to spend the night with the other sisters who are kind of having a hard time right now and it was good that we got to spend time with them.

I think the rest of the week was filled with service......I'm not really sure its all kind of a blur hahaha but it was a good week. We now just need to find things to do in Chestermere and Langdon. Kenora and Andy are in the new ward and at first I was a little worried about that but after talking to them yesterday they'll be just fine. I don't have to worry about them at all. They're so excited to get callings and to help their new ward out. They're wonderful.

 

Anyways life is good. Some days are really hard but I guess that's just part of missionary work, looking back I love knowing Heavenly Father knows I'm strong enough to handle those trials.

 

I hope everything is good back home! I love you all and miss you all so much!

 

Love

Sister M.

Their last dinner with Sister Roda. 

Yay for service! 

"This is Sister Gonzalez she's from Montreal and is HILARIOUS. She speaks Spanish and French and English and I just adore her!"

Emailing their families!

Hello!! How was everyone's week??

To be honest this week was such a blur and I forgot my planner this morning so I can't even look back to see what I did! Ha I'm so sorry. We did have Zone Conference this past week though and it was really good. I love hearing from President Nicholas. After hearing from him I have so much more motivation to go out and work harder and more efficiently. He talked a lot about obedience which was perfect because its something I've really been trying to work on this transfer and I've really seen how its blessed me. When we try to do what Heavenly Father has asked of us He will bless us.  And lets be honest I need all the blessings I can get! Heavenly Father wants us to be obedient because He loves blessing us. In Moses 6:33 it says "Say unto this people: Choose ye this day, to serve the Lord God who made you." I've chosen to serve God and I hope I can do it with all my heart might mind and strength. I love it out here.

We were teaching one of our investigators on Friday night and we were teaching the Plan of Salvation. And then he said something that I absolutely loved. He said "This all sounds so familiar." It was perfect because we got to explain that it should be familiar because we all knew this plan before we came to earth. I then read the scripture from D&C section 138 verse 56 and explained that we knew all of this in the spirit world and how we were prepared to come to earth at this time. At this point the spirit was pretty much yelling at me to invite him to be baptized and before I knew it I was inviting him to be baptized and he said yes. The spirit filled the room. It was such a powerful moment and I'm so excited for him. He's preparing for the date of September 21st.

We also got a couple of referrals this week which is very rare to get in this area so we were soooo excited! We also picked up a new investigator so theres a ton to do right now! Heavenly Father is just pouring out blessings to me and Sister B. but there is some sad news......our stake had some boundary changes yesterday and they took out most of Calgary from our ward and now we pretty much just cover Chestermere and Langdon. Its going to be a hard adjustment because we lost a lot of good people that we were working with but we just need to trust in Heavenly Fathers plan for this stake. I'm really going to miss a lot of the ward members that I became really close with.

 

Anyways I have some funny moments from this week......

that awkward moment when a lady in the ward named her goldfish after you. Seriously the goldfish's name is Sister Martin. I don't know if that should be a compliment or not........

that awkward moment when me and Sister B. are trying to teach a lady who doesn't really speak any English and starts speaking to us in some African dialect and I have no idea what to do.......

that awkward moment when someone thinks your a nun and you try and explain to them that your not a nun and they don't believe you.....

 

I love being a missionary its filled with SO many awkward moments hahaha but its also filled with the best moments in the world.

 

I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

(Thanks for the package momma I love it!)

 

Love

 

Sister M.